Friday, October 30, 2009

Memorandum of Agreement between Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals, Government of India and Government of West Bengal to set up a Petroleum Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Region (PCPIR)
  
In pursuance of the PCPIR policy of the Government of India and the approval of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) in February 2009, the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals, Government of India entered into a Memorandum of Agreement today with the Government of West Bengal to set up a PCPIR at Haldia. The PCPIR policy is a window to ensure the adoption of a holistic approach to the development of global scale industrial clusters in the petroleum, chemical and petrochemical sectors in an integrated and environment friendly manner. The idea is to ensure the setting up of industrial estates in a planned manner with a view to achieve synergies and for value added manufacturing, research and development.

The Government of West Bengal proposed to host a PCPIR in Haldia in Purba Medinipur district covering the existing Haldia Municipal Area and the adjoining areas of Haldia Development Authority (including Nayachar Island). It will cover an area of 250.19 sq.kms, which includes 200.83 sq.kms on the mainland and 49.36 sq.kms on the Nayachar Island. It will exclude the CRZ I (i) area of 2.64 sq.kms on the island. The processing area of 108.42 sq kms is 43.33% of the total area and hence in conformity with the PCPIR policy that states that the minimum processing area for the PCPIR will be about 40% of the total designated area. The balance 141.77 sq. kms will be used as Non-Processing area and will include residential, commercial and other social and institutional infrastructure.

The Govt. of West Bengal proposes to notify the WBPCPIR under Section 9 (3) of West Bengal Town and Country (Planning and Development) Act, 1979. The State Government proposes to constitute a WBPCPIR Development Authority as the Development Authority for the notified area under Section 11 of the West Bengal Town and Country (Planning and Development) Act, 1979.

State Government has estimated a total investment of Rs. 93,180 crore in the proposed PCPIR, including a committed investment of Rs. 48,180 crore. The total employment generation from the WBPCPIR is expected to be 10 lakh persons, which includes direct employment to 4 lakh persons.

The proposal envisages development of physical infrastructure such as roads, rail, air links, ports, water supply, power etc. at a cost of Rs. 18,031 crores. The State Government has sought support from Government of India of Rs. 2108 crore involving road works, port facilities and a submarine cable landing station.

The major processing activities in the region at present are in the petroleum, petrochemical and chemical sectors. The leading among them are IOCL, Haldia Petrochemicals, MCCPTA India Corp Pvt Ltd, Tata Chemicals Ltd, Exide Industries Ltd, Shaw Wallace and Co. Ltd etc. The investment in the region from the existing units is about Rs. 12,872.5 crores. The State Govt has identified Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) and CALS Refinery Ltd. as the anchor tenants. IOCL has taken up expansion of its existing refinery from 6 MMTPA to 7.5 MMTPA with installation of a new hydro cracker unit as its matching secondary facilities at a cost of Rs. 3000 crore. IOCL also plans to initiate a techno economic feasibility study for setting up a grassroot refinery of 15 MMTPA capacity at Haldia, integrated with downstream petrochemical facilties. IOCL has already laid a dedicated crude pipeline from Paradip to Haldia. The State Govt has also signed an MOU with CALS Refinery Ltd. for setting up a crude oil refinery complex in the PCPIR with a capacity to process 5 MMTPA of blend crude in Phase I of the project and will consist of process units, utilities and offsites. These facilities will be installed by transplanting a Bayer Oil refinery at Ingolstatd, Germany and Petro Canada Refinery at Canada to Haldia.

The State Government has carried out a Preliminary Environment Impact Assessment (EIA). The State Government also proposes to carry out a comprehensive EIA for the PCPIR in accordance with the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India. The detailed EIA study will require a time frame of about 12 months beginning with the approval of Terms of Reference for this study by the guidelines of Ministry of Environment and Forests. All existing labour laws of the country would be applicable in the PCPIR and SEZs, in the region, if any, would be governed by special laws, as approved by Government of India.

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